How do you know?
It sure looks like fiberglass in your first photo. Every bullet planter I've had has been fiberglass. Most of them were by Kimball. I think Zenith plastics manufactured some and many of the colors are the same as early Eames armshells; elephant-hide gray, parchment, coral...
Thanks all!
Well I know it's not fiberglass. On fiberglass you can usually see the fibers that look like a bunch of pieces of hair with resin. There's no "hairs" in this one. There's definitely some sort of mix of fibers here.
I think woodywood's approach is getting there with it being some sort of fiberglass-reinforced plastic. Like I mentioned it looks similar to melamine so it has more of a "plastic" feel.
The reason why I ask is because I want to see if I can somehow restore some of it's color. It's faded. Don't mind it too much on the outside but on the inside. It's almost becoming white and I don't want to fill up the planter to the top.
I took a quick closeup photo this morning but It didn't came out too god. Here it is.
Thanks again!
I wouldn't be
so quick to discount it being fiberglass. Think of a fiberglass boat that has a perfectly smooth gloss finish. The fibrglass is there, it is just completely submerged in the plastic resin that binds it all together. The fact that you can not see them does not mean they are not there. The fact that fiber is in the company's name and pegboard's vast experience, along with other observations like I have seen vintage Eames shells where the fibers did not show, Should help you reconsider your verdict. I say this not to prove you wrong, but to help you be as informed as possible if you are going to mess with it. If you are going to try to color it, you would want the best assessment possible of its composition. Having said that, it is my understanding that there is very little you can do to color it nicely. It is very common for moisture to bleach out the inside of these planters and I consider you a winner because the outside is still quite good.
I'll just leave it as it is...
@ glassartist. Thanks for your advise. I guess I'm not going to do anything about it. I didn't wanted to color it, perhaps just apply a bit of penetrol. But I'm just going to leave it the way it is.
@ Riki. Haha that's true. But perhaps because it's finished with paste, paint, etc.
I have some vintage eames shells and even the colored ones you can still see some "hairs". That's what I people about them vintage ones. You can see the fibers in my bullet planter, they just don't look like hairs. What you see in my picture is the texture of the fiber which I don't mind at all. Actually like it. It's just a different type of fiberglass I guess.
I too a look into ebay. There's a Kimball fiberglass (beige) currently there and I also found one just like mine. (Not mine and it's not my ad hehe) I think the ebay photos look more accurate than mines. No material mentioned though. You can also compare the thickness. The fiberglass one is much thinner. Probably about 1/8". Mine is about 1/4".
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=bullet+planter
The mottled
appearance of your planter is certainly not what I expect to see. It is very possible, isn't it, that the company experimented -- successfully, it appears -- with other materials beside glass roving (straight lengths of pulled glass fiber) -- without changing the name of the company ?
Yes, Corvettes, and Boston Whaler boats and many other objects, are made of glass fiber-reinforced resin (Fiberglas was the trade name -- owned by whom ?). The reason those objects don't show the fibers on the finished surface is because the mold is first coated with a "gel coat," which becomes the outside of the object (when constructed in a "female" mold). This creates a perfectly smooth, opaque surface -- which can be painted just like metal, as a Corvette body is.
I was
not passing judgement on the composition of yours in my previous post. I of course don't know. I was just pointing out that like air, just because you cant see it, doesn't mean its not there. And this seemed to be how you were deciding that it was not. Now if I had a really bad one the color of yours, I might play mad scientist and bleed a red sharpie in some solvent and try the resulting liquid as a wipe on stain. But seeing as the outside of yours is so nice, I would just put a plant in it and cover the rest up with dry spanish moss.
The
quick way to intensify the color of just about anything (that isn't already coated, or polished) is to add a clear coat -- of hard finish, or wax, or oil -- etc. The choice will depend on what you think is appropriate for the material, the use, future plans for restoration, etc.
And the way to see what effect a clear coat will have, is to wet the surface in question -- with water, or a clear solvent. Before the wet substance evaporates, the effect seen will approximate what a similarly colorless coating (as mentioned above) will produce -- more or less permanently.
SDR's right
I've had modest success in getting old bleached out fiberglass to look better with the application of some light oil.
If I had your planter, I'd clean it with a mild abrasive (like soft scrub), let it dry, and put lemon oil or orange oil on it. I'd put a nice plant in there (in it's own plastic pot with a tray to catch excess water) and fill the empty space with some stone or lava rock. That way no more damage will be done to it, but you can still use and enjoy it.
I have some outdoor fiberglass lanterns which were very faded on the top. Cleaned 'em, put some oil on, and a lot of color came back. It dries out again over time and you might have to reapply.
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